Franco Girolami goes fastest in second practice at Zandvoort

Franco Girolami ended the day with the fastest time in the second TCR Europe practice session at a wet Zandvoort, ahead of first practice pace-setter Tom Coronel.

Girolami had been near the sharp end in first practice, when he was third fastest, and the PSS Racing driver found an additional four tenths of a second later in the afternoon to go quickest with a lap of 1 minute 45.325 seconds.

The session only saw competitive times in the first 12 minutes, after which rain intensified at the coastal circuit and lap times dropped by almost ten seconds.

Comtoyou Racing’s Coronel continued his strong performance on home soil with the second best time and the leading Audi, having briefly been fastest, ahead of a strong lap by Brutal Fish Racing’s Jack Young in third, the Northern Irishman finding seven tenths of a second from the earlier session, in a session which began in the wet.

Dušan Borković, second in FP1, was fourth fastest in his Audi, just over half a second slower than Girolami, ahead of Mat’o Homola in fifth, the Hyundai driver finding time from earlier in the day.

Niels Langeveld put his new model Hyundai Elantra N in sixth as the best of the Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers once again, the Dutchman using his local knowledge to gain the edge on his three team-mates.

Klim Gavrilov improved on his FP1 effort to go seventh quickest in his Audi on his first visit to the Dutch circuit, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s Nicolas Baert in eighth.

The top ten was completed by Spaniard Isidro Callejas and Macedonian Viktor Davidovski, although they, along with Baert, were over a second off the pace.

Again the Peugeot drivers appeared to struggle, with Teddy Clairet the best of the 308 drivers down in 15^th, almost two seconds off the pace.

Also apparently struggling were the rest of the Hyundai Elantra drivers – with reigning champion Mehdi Bennani down in 13^th, immediately behind team-mate Sami Taoufik. Italian Felice Jelmini was even further off the pace in 20^th, over three seconds adrift.

The session ultimately ended with a red flag three minutes from the end due to the increasingly wet conditions.

Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 11:00 CEST (10:00 BST) on Saturday.

Session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	72		Franco GIROLAMI	PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:45.325	–
2	32		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	1:45.500	0.175
3	62		Jack YOUNG	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	9	1:45.520	0.195
4	162		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	1:45.897	0.572
5	70		Mat’o HOMOLA	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	1:46.152	0.827
6	10		Niels LANGEVELD	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	1:46.192	0.867
7	14		Klim GAVRILOV	VRC-Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	9	1:46.232	0.907
8	8		Nicolas BAERT	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	1:46.457	1.132
9	26		Isidro CALLEJAS	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:46.488	1.163
10	110		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:46.598	1.273
11	17		Martin RYBA	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:46.680	1.355
12	25		Sami TAOUFIK	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:46.746	1.421
13	250		Mehdi BENNANI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:46.872	1.547
14	16		Evgenii LEONOV	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	1:47.126	1.801
15	20		Teddy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	9	1:47.178	1.853
16	21		Jimmy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	1:47.291	1.966
17	77		Sylvain PUSSIER	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	7	1:47.830	2.505
18	11		Gustav BIRCH	Brian Madsen Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	9	1:47.898	2.573
19	66		Gilles COLOMBANI	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	10	1:48.094	2.769
20	44		Felice JELMINI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:48.737	3.412
21	24		Jáchym GALÁŠ	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	1:49.677	4.352